Watertown kids start their first day at Rashi School in Dedham

For their first-ever day of school at their new home in Dedham, teacher Karen Abraham set up a scavenger hunt for her Rashi School first-graders.She explained how the eco-friendly toilet options work in the boys’ bathroom, took them to check out the gym – “You can see it’s a beautiful, be...

For their first-ever day of school at their new home in Dedham, teacher Karen Abraham set up a scavenger hunt for her Rashi School first-graders.

She explained how the eco-friendly toilet options work in the boys’ bathroom, took them to check out the gym – “You can see it’s a beautiful, beautiful room where there will be lots of activities taking place” – and told them “the elevator is not for first-graders to use.”

“What if we have crutches?” one boy asked. In that case, maybe, Abraham replied.

On the way to the auditorium, Remi Trestan reached out to her mother as they passed “Coffee and Kleenex,” an event for new parents held in the Sukkat Shalom, a gathering place in the center of the school. A classmate tried to pull her away, but the 6-year-old wouldn’t leave until her mom came and gave her a big hug.

Last Tuesday was a mix of the timeless and the novel at Rashi, which after 24 years finally has a building of its own. The $30 million, LEED-certified, light-infused school stands near some woods on the campus of Hebrew SeniorLife’s NewBridge on the Charles – making it the only continuing care retirement community with a K-8 school in the country.

Regular interactions and activities between students and seniors are planned, including student visits to NewBridge residents, and joint campus-wide performances and holiday celebrations.

“The opening of our new school building is the realization of a vision set in motion by the Rashi School’s founders, and it is an incredible honor to see this dream become a reality,” Head of School Matthew King said. “I am thrilled to lead Rashi’s students, staff and families as we begin this exciting new journey at our Dedham campus.”

At one point during their journey Tuesday, Abraham shared one way she gets oriented in the 82,000-square-foot building, saying, “It’s shaped like a giant kof, a Hebrew letter kof, or a C.”

The scavenger hunt’s last clue was “Find the room where we pray and study Torah.” That was just down the hall, in the Beit Midrash, Rashi’s chapel, which Abraham called the house of story. Trestan said she liked that room, “because it’s big and got comfy chairs.”

George Nathaniel, 6, was impressed by the books that line the shelves. “It kind of looks like there’s gold on there.”

At a morning assembly there, Athletic Director Joshua Horowicz told middle schoolers about a few important changes the new school has brought. With no more going to a Newton YMCA for gym, “We’ve started over,” so physical education is now “fitness and health,” Horowicz said.

And for the first soccer practice next Monday, he said, “We’re going to go right over there, about an eighth of a mile, and have practice.”

Page 2 of 2 - In Dedham, Rashi has outdoor athletic fields and a regulation-size gym. On Monday, Sept. 20, the school will host its first home games, when the boys and girls soccer teams play that afternoon.

Rashi, with an enrollment of 301 students, is the only K-8 Reform Jewish independent school in New England. The school’s formal dedication is scheduled for Oct. 17.

Amid the excitement of the new beginning, normal first day of school stuff was going on in Rashi’s classrooms on Tuesday. Third-grade students ate bananas and other snacks as their teacher read from a book, fifth-graders were getting their binders and folders organized, and eighth-graders talked in Spanish class about what they did over “el verano.”

In the hallway, lower school head Heidi Chapple explained that “Coffee and Kleenex” gives parents of the new, youngest students a chance to meet and talk.

“The children are teary-eyed when the parents drop them off in the classroom,” but many parents are apprehensive, too, Chapple said. “I go back and forth giving them updates every five minutes on what’s going on in the classrooms, or how their child is doing.”

Student government president Jonathan Zackman called the new school “a great opportunity to enhance our learning,” and enhance Rashi’s competitiveness. The previous schools weren’t great facilities, he noted.

Being the first eighth grade in the new building “feels really good, because we get to set the example,” said Zackman, 13, of West Roxbury.

“We have a chance to be the graduating eighth grade. We have to be very good models to set an example for the younger kids so that when they’re in the eighth grade, they can set an example for the younger kids,” he said.

A third-grade student quickly gave her assessment of the new building before being called into Hebrew class.

“So far, I think it’s a double thumbs-up, because it’s just really, really neat,” she said.